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New book by Denver historian spotlights alternative to ‘Obamacare’
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Biographer and historian, Jeanne E. Abrams, Ph.D.
(Photo credit: Dean Rotbart)
In the early 20th century, Dr. Charles David Spivak was a pioneer in Colorado medical history and one of the reasons our state continues to this day to have a thriving health care economy and global reputation for medical excellence.
Dr. Spivak was a leader in the crusade against tuberculosis and from 1904 to 1954 was the head of the Jewish Consumptives’ Relief Society (JCRS) located in Lakewood. During that time, JCRS treated and accommodated more than 10,000 patients – most of them Jewish immigrants just like himself.
Two things call Dr. Spivak to mind and remind me of the relevance of his life and work in our time.
The first is a meticulously researched biography of Dr. Spivak, freshly published, by Jeanne E. Abrams, Ph.D., a professor at the Penrose Library at the University of Denver and the longtime director of the Beck Archives and the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society.
Dr. Abrams’ book is a portrait of a man who arrived in Colorado in 1896 and built a global reputation as a crusading physician, writer, linguist and humanitarian. His “no-mountain-is-too-high” Colorado attitude is an inspiration.
Second, and perhaps even more relevant this week as President Barack Obama presses Congress to pass his government health care takeover, is the fact that Dr. Spivak built and operated JCRS for five decades without a nickel’s worth of taxpayer funds.
In the early 1900s, tuberculosis was the scourge of the United States. Particularly troubling was the fact that so many of its victims were both immigrants and poor. Many consumptives died, alone, in the streets as hospitals and sanitariums would not accept them, especially if they had advanced cases.
Dr. Spivak built JCRS to create a home for these castoffs just west of Denver on a beautifully landscaped piece of property that to this day retains much of its charm, groomed lawns, foliage and a clear view of the Rocky Mountains to the West. Fewer than 5% of JCRS’s patients came at their own expense and no patient was required to pay for treatment once here.
Rather than fund his sanitarium and medical research by soliciting donations from the wealthy and from large businesses, Dr. Spivak set out to prove to the world – in his own words – “that a national organization can be launched, built and maintained by small tradesmen and working men…”
In other words, the Dr. Spivak plan for those without so-called “health insurance” was charity, one human being looking after the well being of another, a nickel, dime and a dollar at a time.
As Dr. Abrams writes: “Spivak insisted that the JCRS be a ‘peoples’ institution,’ with money collected from thousands of working-class supporters with modest incomes from throughout the country, a policy that diverged from the norm but that proved successful from an economic standpoint for decades.”
The biography of Dr. Spivak makes it clear that he used his oration skills and public relations instincts to convince donors of their obligations to their fellow citizens, something that President Obama might have considered in his press conference this week – in which the President promised that Americans can provide universal healthcare to all citizens without, seemingly, any personal sacrifice.
Writes Dr. Abrams: “In an early solicitation, for example, [Dr. Spivak] informed potential contributors that ‘it is your duty to join our organization as a member or contributor. The charitable work that you are invited to support morally and materially, according to your influence and means, is the only one of its kind. It cannot fail to appeal to everybody whose heart is not calloused and whose imagination is vivid enough to reproduce before his eyes the tragedies of the struggling and suffering of hundreds and thousands…”
And the media, today, say that President Obama is eloquent.
Unlike Dr. Spivak, who did not pit the poor against the rich in order to achieve his goals – but rather relied on the goodness of his fellow citizens – President Obama spoke this week of greedy doctors who perform unnecessary surgery on children and the wealthy, who he believes should be taxed further to support his health care takeover.
Beyond Dr. Spivak’s legacy and its lessons for today’s “let taxpayers fund all health care” crowd, Dr. Abrams’ book serves as a reminder of how so many of today’s prominent Denver and Colorado families came to be here in the first place.
Many of us are the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of German and Eastern European Jewish immigrants who arrived in Colorado because of its groundbreaking health-related services. “Of those who journeyed west, many came to seek their fortunes, but a significant number – perhaps as many as a third of the migrants to the region – came to recover their health,” Dr. Abrams notes in her book.
Dr. Charles David Spivak: A Jewish Immigrant and the American Tuberculosis Movement (226 pages) is a Timberline Book, published by the University Press of Colorado. Thomas J. Noel and Stephen J. Leonard, serve as Timberline’s editors.
Dr. Abrams, who is part of the University of Denver’s Center for Judaic Studies, is also the author of Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail from New York University Press, 2006.
For more information on DU’s Center for Judaic Studies and its many wonderful programs and resources contact Dr. Sarah Pessin, its director, at 303-871-3020.
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